Saturday, October 27, 2018

Your Gift

I’ve been talking with folks about how it often feels like our gifts are pointless. I question my calling. I struggle with the demons of self-doubt, fear, imposter-syndrome, and distraction. I tell myself that I did more good when I was an activist. I affected more people, created more good, even when I worked in higher education. 


The Struggle

Part of the struggle is with the myth that Spiritual work should be unpaid and an unpaid profession isn't a "real" profession. No, money is not a valid measure of value. How much you are paid is not a reflection of what your work is worth any more than how much you have is a reflection of what you are worth. 


I wrestle also with feeling responsible for doing something about the political, human rights, and survival crisis that is present all around me. Spiritual work and personal transformation work feels so indulgent when the world is burning. I feel urgency to get out there and put out the fire, to tend the burned, to warn people and recruit people for the bucket brigade... 

We Need ALL our Gifts

And yet. I can’t do all the things. I can't even carry ALL the buckets of water. Maybe it is okay that my role is to feed the souls of the people on the bucket brigade. 

  • Your poetry can be (and already is) a nourishment for the laborer in the work for justice. 
  • Your testimony is transformative for the reluctant. 
  • Your hospice work is making a difference one life, one family, one community at a time. 
  • Your teaching is transforming young people into leaders of tomorrow. 
  • Your book is going to have ripple effects.

What you do is your gift and you kinda have to give it... 

Kumquat by Ninjiangstar CC3.0

Living Like a Tree

I think of people as trees: We all have roots that need to take up nourishment and branches that bear fruit. Your gift, your kumquats, are a thirsty someone else’s water. I know this because I’ve seen and experienced it. That doesn't make it easy to produce your precious kumquat gift... but it does make it necessary.

-
Amy offers spiritual mentoring to dispirited givers: Helping you find your flow, your gifts, and your nourishment. Click here to book.

No comments:

Post a Comment